Norfolk Southern CEO Jim Squires spoke about why the City of Atlanta was the right choice for its headquarters relocation.

In March 2019, the freight rail company broke ground on its new corporate headquarters in Midtown Atlanta. The railroad’s relocation, which the company officially announced in December 2018, will bring approximately 850 jobs to Atlanta with an average salary of $105,000 and generate an economic impact of around $811 million for the region. Plans call for the building to be completed and occupied by Norfolk Southern in the third quarter of 2021.

Squires spoke about why they decided to make the move to Atlanta.

“Atlanta has a lot of natural advantages,” he said. “For example, it has outstanding transportation connections, so the Airport is a major attraction. It’s a major freight transportation node on our rail network today, so being close to that, having the headquarters right in the middle of the operations network, that’s a plus for us as well. The ability to recruit from Atlanta’s colleges and universities, that’s a big draw. We were fortunate to locate an outstanding site here in midtown Atlanta and so we’re very excited to be in that tech corridor part of Atlanta.”

Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, the City of Atlanta, Invest Atlanta, the Metro Atlanta Chamber, the state of Georgia, and many other partners worked together to attract the company. Squires spoke highly of the process.

“We’ve had such wonderful support from the state of Georgia, from the City of Atlanta, from economic development partners in the City and at the state level,” he said. “We’ve had the support of many business partners in the private sector as well. We really appreciate all the support that we received from Invest Atlanta as well.”